The doc talked my dad into a SHINGLES vaccine?!?

[tammyswanson]

I was like WTH?? My dad had chickenpox as a child. Has anyone heard of a vax for shingles? I can't believe he would actually let them do that. And then the doctor said that the virus can shed!! And, my mom is on immune suppressing drugs too. Not a good combination.

I wonder if DS will get chicken pox? Then my mom said that she had been vaccinated for smallpox as a child. This doesn't sound right to me, she said that she didn't get a 'scar' on her arm from it (She said they scratched them and they would get a scar on their arm). Does this sound right to you? It was like a big round scar.

I wonder if my parents are getting confused about which vaccine did what to them.

[brendaziz]

Yeah- the shingles vaccine is quite a weird one to me....
But I definitely think that most of the time my parents don't remember what they did and did not have as a child. All I know is them and all my aunts and uncles had measles, mumps, and rubella - and no issues there.
The only thing my parents distinctly remember of vaxes is the oral polio- given in a sugar cube at school waiting in a long line of baby boomers.
Funny thing is my dad never took it :-) He says he didn't like sugar so he threw it out! hahaha.

Also- if your ds gets chicken pox- no worries. Both my boys had it and I'm VERY happy they got it naturally.

[talk de jour]

Originally Posted by tammyswanson

I wonder if DS will get chicken pox? Then my mom said that she had been vaccinated for smallpox as a child. This doesn't sound right to me, she said that she didn't get a 'scar' on her arm from it (She said they scratched them and they would get a scar on their arm). Does this sound right to you? It was like a big round scar.

I wonder if my parents are getting confused about which vaccine did what to them.

No comment on the shingles vaccination, but you need to do your research. That is indeed what infection with the vaccinia virus (purposeful inoculation of this virus, derived from cowpox, a superficial skin infection, produces immunity to smallpox) produces. This infection with vaccinia is known as the smallpox vaccination and is actually where the term derives from (Latin vacca, cow)

[talk de jour]

Here's a pic of the sore it produces.

http://www.bt.cdc.gov/images/VAXSIT5A.jpg

Some people scar, some people don't -- when they do, it's a round "pinpricky"-looking scar.

[maia71]

That's so funny because my dad was talked into the same thing by his doctor a few weeks ago. He also received a flu shot and a pneumomia shot; he's been feeling horrible ever since. I told him he was probably sick from the shots and he said it was a cold--yeah right! I think his doc told him to get the shingles shot because it could be very dangerous for older people if they developed shingles (he did have chicken pox as a child).